日本ゼオライト学会　刊行物 Publication of Japan Zeolite Association

The semiconductor industry has been evolving at an remarkable pace for the past four decades．To continue the evolution at this pace，new materials with unique combination of Properties have to be introduced and incorporated，and one of them is low dielectric constant（low-k）materials. The material of choice for dielectric materials since the inception of the semiconductor industry has been dense silica that has a k=4.0. To reduce k，many materials have been studied and one major class is porous silica．Incorporation of air reduces k because air has a k of about 1. Here pure-silica-zeolite as a possible low-k materialis reviewed. Its major advantages over other porous silicas such as sol-gel silica and mesoporous silica are high mechnical strength，high thermal conductivity，and low hydrophilicity. The performance data and the deposition processes for zeolite low-k materials are analyzed. The data available so far are promissing，but more chactarizations are needed and many technical issues are yet to be resolved. The future research needs for this technology are also discussed．